Archives

Title Credits : Songs by Rafi Sahab

By Swaminathan Rajan

As a kid I used to be fascinated by the title credits in movies (still am, though a tad irritated that it comes in the end, when everyone is walking out, blocking the view). Well, many title credits had tunes of the songs of the film. And I guess in some cases, the producer and/or director were so enamored with the songs, that the whole song used to be played in the title credits.

I have tried to compile a list from my collections and came up with 46 numbers. This is remarkable considering that Rafi Sahab has sung in only around 1960 odd films (as per my records, give or take a few).

It underlines the faith that the filmmakers/MDs had in Rafi Sahab, that his songs would draw the public (In fact I see that the friends VCDs are marketed with Rafi Sahab – (and other singers) songs in their cover rather than the film stars.

Bimanbaruah ji, I checked up with the movies in you tube. Waqt song is not played in the title credits. As regards Jaani Dushman, only a small part is played during the opening credits, and thus I had not added

Nice write up, and I personally used to take a lot of notice and interest in the credits and would be so annoyed if the playback singers were listed alphabetically or in a pathetic random order were someone like Lata would sing one song and Mohd Rafi would sing four songs in the film and yet her name would be above his, this used to infuriate me so much. This used to bother me so much as the songs that Rafi would sing would be alot more popular than other artists and in my opinion was responsible for making an average film into a hit. This is not me being petty but giving the artist in this case Mohd Rafi the credit he rightfully deserves. However, even up to this day the great man has been deprived of this by being overlooked for important awards which other people a lot less worthy have had bestowed upon them, with this I rest my case!

Dear Swaminathan
Bundle of thanks for the excellent choice you have made for Rafi Fans. It gives extreme happines and enjoyment by virtue of your choice. Yes these songs are all worth listening again and again.